Unauthorised Account Upgrade

I have been a relatively happy FNB customer for a number of years and have convinced friends and colleagues to switch to FNB due to their excellent online banking services. My opinion has changed considerably in the past week.

One thing that always annoyed me about FNB was their persistent pestering to upgrade my accounts so that they could charge me more fees for "benefits" that I didn't require. I finally decided, on the evening of 12 September 2019, to upgrade my cheque account from Easy to Gold so that I could take advantage of increased eBucks rewards. I did this through the FNB App and this is where my troubles started.

Despite ensuring that I was applying for an upgrade to a Gold Cheque account I was directed to a screen which proudly informed me that I qualified for a Premier account with an overdraft based on income and expense figures that were completely inaccurate. I made sure that I changed the product selection back to Gold and confirmed that I did NOT want an overdraft before proceeding with the application. Once I was done however I received an email confirming that I had agreed to an overdraft facility and an upgrade to a Premier Cheque account!

I immediately lodged a complaint through the online complaints form and contacted the FNB call center the next day. The call center agent was able to cancel the overdraft facility immediately but advised that it would take 24 - 48 hours for my account to be downgraded from Premier to Gold! I also received an email response to my complaint advising me that someone would contact me within 48 hours to facilitate the downgrade of my cheque account.

It is now the afternoon of 17 September 2019, almost three business days later, and the only call I have received was from the FNB sales department who wanted to UPGRADE my credit card! The agent did try to assist me by putting me through to someone who could follow up on the downgrade but the call was ended after I was informed that the number I had been transferred to was incorrect.

I find this unauthorised upgrade of my account to one which costs almost double the amount in monthly fees to be highly ************ behavior. It is also very concerning that I was signed up for an overdraft facility without agreeing to any terms and based on affordability figures which were inaccurate. To make matters worse it now seems that FNB is unwilling to facilitate the downgrade as promised. I am seriously considering taking my daily banking and investments elsewhere.